Description: Also known as "The Explorer's Air Yacht," the S-38 was the Sikorsky Aircraft Company's first flying boat to see wide production. Introduced in May of 1928, Sikorsky produced somewhere between 90 and 100 of these planes, and they saw service with Pan American Airways and the US Army. Numerous private individuals bought and flew the S-38 as well, including: Charles Lindbergh, who surveyed part of South American and the Pacific for Pan Am; filmmakers Martin and Osa Johnson, who used a the zebra-striped S-38 called Osa's Ark, and a giraffe-patterned S-39 named Spirit of Africa to explore Africa from the air, and famous aviator Howard Hughes, who intended to fly his S-38 around the world.

The S-38 has a boat-like fuselage with two sets of wings. One pair of wings are attached to the hull, the second wing is a single unit mounted above the fuselage and supported by an arraignment of angled struts and spars. Two engines are mounted under the upper wing, each in line with the paired booms supporting the tail. The arraignment is almost identical to that of the Consolidated Model 16-1 Commodore seen in the HERO System Vehicle Sourcebook, page 47. However, unlike the Commodore the S-38 has wheels and can land on either land or water.

A Sikorsky S-38-A has a 40' hull, a 71' foot wingspan, and is just under 14' in height. It weighs 6,000 lbs (2,727 kg) empty, and has a maximum takeoff weight of 10,480 lbs (4,764 kg). It's top speed is 120 mph, can reach an altitude of 16,000 feet, and has a range of 750 miles on a single load of fuel. The plane has a crew of two and can carry 10 passengers.